Video-recording consultations for educational purposes in out-of-hours primary care: patients and physicians are willing to participate

Abstract

Background Video-recordings of consultations are used by general practitioner (GP) trainees to enable reflection on aspects of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Typically, these recordings are made during office hours in general practice, but little is known about using video-recording during out of hours (OOH) care, which is an important and distinct part of a GP's work. To be able to record consultations during OOH care (i.e. at the emergency department (ED) and at the General Practitioner Cooperative (GPC)), patients must be willing to cooperate and give informed consent. Therefore, it was of interest to investigate potential barriers in these OOH settings. Methods A questionnaire on demographics and attitudes regarding consent was administered to patients and physicians at the ED and at the GPC in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium. Results A total of 346 questionnaires were completed, 23 by physicians and 323 by patients. A majority of the patients (225/286 (79%)) would consent to video-recording the consultation, without physical examination. Almost all physicians (21/23) would agree to participate. Overall, 85% (260/323) of the patients agree when only the doctor was being recorded. Patients were neutral in recording in 79% (88/224) at the GPC and 57% (56/99) at the ED. Shyness or embarrassment was present in 32% (71/224), and 28% (28/99) at the GPC and ED, respectively. We did not find any significant differences in giving consent or feelings between patients at the GPC and ED. Conclusion A vast majority of both patients and physicians would consent to video-recording their consultation in OOH primary care settings (GPC and ED), with possible concerns about privacy, shame and discomfort.

Looking Inside the Out-of-Hours Primary Care Consultation: General Practitioners’ and Researchers’ Experiences of Using Video Observations as a Method

“…We did not address the views of patients in our study. Previous studies show that the majority of patients are willing to participate in this type of study (Jepson et al, 2017;Krug et al, 2018;Themessl-Huber et al, 2008). In our study, 73% of patients consented to participate.…”

“…As far as we know, video recording for research purposes have not yet been used in OOH primary care. In a previous questionnaire study, we learned that almost 80% of patients would consent to video recording their OOH consultation, without the physical examination on camera (Krug et al, 2018). Video recordings could give us insight into the explicit and inexplicit elements during a doctor-patient interaction, which might give us more insight into how we could facilitate these consultations to improve for example prescribing behavior of antibiotics.…”

The provision of undergraduate clinical placements in ENT during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic – exploring patient perspectives on a variety of approaches

“… 10 Furthermore, a study of 323 patients in Belgium revealed that although most patients would consent to their consultations being video-recorded without physical examination, emotions of shyness or discomfort were present in 30.6 per cent of those surveyed. 11 Interestingly, the Belgian study also showed that more patients consented to their consultations being recorded if the physician was the only person being recorded. Therefore, a potential solution is to ask patients if they are comfortable with only their doctor being recorded for educational purposes, which may lessen their feelings of discomfort.…”